With the Unibet Open 2011 season all wrapped up, we can now reveal the results of the annual Leaderboard!
All season, 5% of the prize pool at Unibet Open Live Main Events was withheld for the top ten players on the Leaderboard. After four events, the total Leaderboard prize pool came to a whopping €93,350, which has been divided as follows:
| Place | Name | Surname | Nationality | Points | Prize % | Prize € |
| 1 | Tim | Verbon | NL | 208 | 40 | € 37,340.00 |
| 2 | Peter | Harkes | NL | 206 | 15 | € 14,002.50 |
| 3 | Pim | van Riet | NL | 198 | 10 | € 9,335.00 |
| 4 | Pim | van Wieringen | NL | 182 | 8 | € 7,468.00 |
| 5 | Laurens | De Smet | BE | 178 | 7 | € 6,534.50 |
| 6 | Alex | Rousso | UK | 168 | 6 | € 5,601.00 |
| 7 | Ilkka | Heikkila | FI | 167 | 5 | € 4,668.00 |
| 8 | Soren | Blanner | DK | 147 | 3.5 | € 3,267.25 |
| 8 | Henrik | Hecklen | DK | 147 | 3.5 | € 3,267.25 |
| 10 | Davor | Pavic | SE | 146 | 2 | € 1,867.00 |
| Total: | € 93,350.00 |
Pim van Riet (left) was frontrunner for much of the season after making two consecutive final tables at Barcelona and Dublin, but his failure to cash at Riga allowed two other Dutchmen, Tim Verbon and Peter Harkes, to overtake him, and he eventually finished in third place overall. A fourth Dutchman, Pim van Wieringen, bubbled the Riga final table to award him 78 Leaderboard points and fourth place at the end of the season, while fifth place on the Leaderboard was taken by Dutch-speaking Belgian Laurens De Smet.
The only nation other than the Netherlands who can claim more than one spot in the top ten is Denmark – UO Online 5 champion Henrik Hecklen and three-time UO Online finalist Soren Blanner are tied for eighth place on 147 points each. The UK’s Alex Rousso was the only Unibet Ambassador to make the Leaderboard cut after a solid performance this season, and he gets €5,601 for his efforts.
By midway through Day 2 at Riga, well inside the money, it became apparent that it was going to be a battle for the top spot between Tim Verbon and Peter Harkes. The crucial hand took place with 23 players left. Verbon went all in with A-Q and after some deliberation Harkes called him with K-4 suited – he said afterwards that he’d called purely for the sake of the Leaderboard points. 
Verbon doubled up and although he exited not long after, the extra few places he laddered were enough to win him 58 points for 20th place. When added to the points for his 19th place finish in Malta, a fourth place finish in UO Online 1 and first place in UO Online 3, plus 30 points for amassing the requisite VIP points between live events, Verbon’s excellent all-round performance was enough to secure him 208 points. If Harkes had won the hand, it would have been him in first place and Verbon would have been relegated to second.
Peter Harkes won’t be particularly disappointed by his second place Leaderboard payout – for a man who didn’t play half the Online legs or Unibet Open Malta, second place is an extraordinary feat indeed. Fifth place at Unibet Open Dublin was actually the young Dutchman’s first ever live cash, and he followed it up weeks later with his second ever live cash, first place at Riga. He gets an extra €14,002.50 for his efforts, on top of the roughly €115,000 he made from his two final table appearances.
To see the full 2011 Leaderboard results, please click here. All the Leaderboard winners will have their prizes paid to their Unibet accounts after Christmas, and the full details of next year’s Leaderboard structure will be published in the coming weeks.
Many congratulations to Tim Verbon and all the other Leaderboard winners – we hope you’ve all enjoyed the Unibet Open 2011 season as much as we have, and we look forward to seeing you again next season.
